The DANA tragedy of October 29, 2024, which killed 217 people and also left 16 missing, in addition to hundreds of injuries and billions of euros in material damage, will be judicially investigated. To the complaints that have already been presented and announced, those of the victims and their families will be added who will demand the answers that the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, did not give in his appearance in the Corts Valencianes last Friday. From the decision-making on the day of the catastrophe at the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi), which started at 5:00 p.m. on October 29 and to which Mazón arrived late having extended a meal, what they have said is known. different sources, but the meeting was not officially recorded, as Emergency sources confirm to elDiario.es. Curiously, fragments of the meeting have been leaked, such as the one that showed that the Minister of Justice, Salomé Pradas, lied when she said that until shortly before 8:00 p.m. that day she was unaware of the Es-Alert system of mass notification to the entire population.
The fact that there is no official recording of that meeting, in which momentous decisions were made, could hinder future judicial investigations or parliamentary commissions. The responsibility for recording the Cecopi corresponds to Emergencies, which does not usually keep minutes of the content of the meetings, much less of the resolutions, as these are emergency situations. Which does not exclude that any of the institutions involved in the operational meetings prepare their own documentation (this was the case of the minutes on the Cecopi on November 1 prepared by the Fire Department of the Valencia City Council to which elDiario.es had access ).
“Cecopi is not a collegiate body, so no official notes are made of what happens nor is it recorded,” explain sources familiar with Valencian Emergency management.
In fact, in previous episodes of DANA these meetings would not have been recorded, although with the number of victims that there have been in 2024, any documentation about the key meeting of the first Cecopi becomes fundamental evidence. Other sources from institutions attending the meetings explain that it would be up to Emergencies to record, although people who connect remotely were able to record it, as is already known since leaks have occurred.
Although there are no recordings of the meetings, there is an emergency management system called ‘Comcord’, which records operational decisions. In the end, it is a kind of ‘black box’ in which specialized technicians, when they open a case, in an emergency situation, record step by step which organizations involved in the operation must be notified or what decisions are made.
In the ‘Comcord’ all the orders given to the different teams to act in a catastrophe are recorded, including firefighters, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) or the State Security Forces and Bodies, as explained to this daily sources knowledgeable in the management of Emergencies. Thanks to ‘Comcord’, with each warning in a catastrophe situation, an alarm goes off in all the centers involved.
The three main control centers of the regional Emergency Department have access to this management system for situations such as floods, forest fires or other disasters, located in l’Eliana – headquarters of the Coordination Center -, Alicante and Castelló.
Additionally, there are also the numerous emails and notices that, for example, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) sent on the day in question, as well as the minutes of the Fire Department of the Valencia City Council in the Cecopi on November 1. At the moment, information about the decisive Cecopi meeting on October 29 is known only in dribs and drabs.
What does the law that regulates emergencies say?
The autonomous law of Civil Protection and Emergency Management regulates the registration in the ‘112 Comunitat Valenciana’ management system of actions and communications with citizens, whether telematic, telephone or radio. They constitute the “official source of information on data related to the management of emergency incidents”, as indicated in article 53 of the law.
The information related to the management of an emergency incident managed by ‘112 Comunitat Valenciana’ is available to all the essential services involved, “for the strict purposes of its management,” the standard adds. It is only provided, once the management of the emergency incident is completed, to the judicial authority. Unless there is a court order, it is kept for a maximum period of two years.
The conversations will also be one of the keys to confirm the collapse of the Emergency telephone line due to the avalanche of calls from citizens trapped by DANA. And also the complaints about the breakdowns in telephone 112 that prevented calls from being answered, according to telephone service workers.
The following article of the standard regulates the comprehensive management of emergencies and communications by the different essential regional services. Which includes the standardized communications system for essential services that intervene in an emergency or catastrophe. That is, the emergency and security digital communications network of the Generalitat, whose protocols for using the network and the organization of communications in emergency and catastrophe situations correspond to the Department of Justice and Interior.
The “interconnection” of essential services
Valencian law obliges all essential services of the Valencian Community to “interconnect” with the ‘112 Valencian Community’ emergency system for the “reception of incidents, communications, management, mobilization and monitoring, and coordination of information.”
The “interconnection” of essential services is carried out through a terminal of the ‘112 Comunitat Valenciana’ own emergency management system or through a “standardized interface” approved by order of the department responsible for civil protection and emergency management. emergencies (the Department of Justice and Interior, currently directed by Salomé Pradas). “The Generalitat will promote and facilitate the integration of all essential services into the standardized comprehensive emergency and communications management system,” adds the regional law.
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